Electronic devices for power supplies and other electronic assemblies are conventionally provided in a protective package. The packaged electronic devices are conventionally mounted directly to a circuit board, the devices cooperating to form a circuit functioning, perhaps, as a power supply.
As with other types of electronic components, the trend in the design of power supplies has been towards achieving an increased power and device density and a lower device profile. Since many surface-mount devices are typically smaller than traditional through-hole devices, one way to achieve higher device density is to employ surface-mount electronic devices, to the exclusion of the larger through-hole mounted devices.
Some complex circuits may require more board real estate than is available with a single circuit board. Many designs, therefore, employ an auxiliary circuit board mounted to a primary circuit board. Electronic devices may then be surface mounted to both the primary and auxiliary circuit boards, significantly increasing device density. In designs requiring multiple circuit boards, the circuit boards are typically assembled separately using conventional automated pick-and-place equipment. The circuit boards are then mounted together in a separate manufacturing step. The auxiliary circuit board is typically mountable to the primary circuit board via through-hole pins. The leads of the auxiliary circuit board are typically soldered to the primary circuit card manually.
Since the primary circuit board typically contains a large number of surface mount components, the auxiliary circuit board may be the only through-hole mounted component on the primary circuit board. A separate or additional manufacturing step is thus required to mount the auxiliary circuit board to the primary circuit board, thereby increasing the complexity and overall cost of the electronic assembly incorporating the circuit boards.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a circuit board capable of being surface mounted to another circuit board using the same reflow soldering process used to mount the other surface mount electronic devices.